As I watched the news this morning, I heard the news anchors saying again and again that what the Midlands community is looking forward to is returning to a sense of normalcy. I nodded my head in agreement at first, but then I realized that for some many families there won’t be a normal to …
Yesterday, I met the Fernwood Baptist van driven by its pastor, Bailey Nelson, at Victorian Lakes Mobile Home Community, community we have been working in and among for a little more than a year. Our plan was to distribute half of the supplies they had brought to this community and had been our plan since …
The past week the majority of my time has been spent checking on members and making sure that they and their loved ones were safe in the midst of the #SCFlood. Then, there were follow up calls and conversations each time there was news of a new dam that had been breeched or another area of …
This song is based on a true story, not the story of the Midlands area this week, but it could have easily been based on what we have experienced. It was unbelievable to watch as our grocery store and the restaurants we frequent were submerged under water. Even more devastating were the stories we have …
I was sitting in the pew of the Dover Chapel at Gardner-Webb. It was a session for our preaching class, but there was something different about today’s class. My preaching professor had invited a female preacher to share her story about her call to ministry. As I listened to her story, realizing it was my …
I looked down at my belly and my bare feet and realized that at that moment I was indeed barefoot and pregnant and standing in the kitchen. I had to laugh at myself because this stereotype that has been used and overused is just impossibly easy to live into when you are eight months pregnant …
In my first year of teaching, I experienced something that changed the way I view God, the church, and society. I was teaching second grade in a high poverty school. Our school was 88% free and reduced lunch, the second highest rate of food insecurity in the district. At Christmas, my home church had always …
I was in Target, which is not an uncommon place for me to find myself as we await Baby H’s arrival. As I was standing in line, there was a frenzy of activity in the returns and customer service section. As I waited, I was trying to determine what was going on. There was a …
We were in the car talking about our plans for the weekend. We were talking about who we were going to see, something we do often since our girls have double the amount of people in their lives to keep track of. In talking about one place we were going, our 7-year-old asked me about …
In a recent interview, Paige Patterson said: Patterson said by 1979, the year the conservative resurgence was launched, “the bridle was off the horse, and Southern Baptist Convention was destined to look like the United Methodist Church with female pastors everywhere.” “Quite a number of churches who disaffiliated from the denomination have now installed women …
